Constructive ideas

The plan to demolish and rebuild each of the four stacks of London's Battersea Power Station seems straightforward enough: To duplicate exactly the original design and construction of the chimneys. But the process of deconstruction and reconstruction of the 103-metre tall stacks have called for fresh ideas. First, the southwest chimney will be scanned, with the resulting 3D model used to rebuild all four chimneys. Then the stacks will be destroyed by a self-climbing rig which will start at the top and work its way down using four concrete crushers to demolish the structure by breaking off six-inch sections and sending the debris down a funnel inside the chimney. Finally, the rebuild of the chimneys will use a rig carrying a reconfigurable mould to cast the new chimneys' 1.22m-tall sections in situ.